South America - Environmental Paper Network

From Dust to Green: Voices of Hope Between the Eucalyptus Rows

This is Part 1 of a story documenting EPN International Program Coordinator, Sergio Baffoni, during his month-long journey across Brazil, where he met with communities defending their customary rights and seeking support to make their struggles visible. The road is dusty. Deep ruts run in both directions, worn by trucks that thunder past all […]

Forging Climate Justice Alliances in Valparaiso

Written by Janaina Uemura, coordinator of BAN’s Latin America working group and Davi Martins, BAN’s International Advocacy Campaigner. At the end of August 2025, the vibrant port city of Valparaíso, Chile, became a convergence point for climate justice movements and NGOs at the 4th Climate Justice Latam and the Caribbean Meeting (Cuarto Encuentro Latinoamericano y […]

Land, Water, and Blood: The Atlas of Rural Conflict in Brazil

Behind Brazil’s global image as a land of natural abundance—and the host of this year’s international climate summit—lies a stark reality: centuries of violence, dispossession, and resistance in the countryside. The Atlas of Conflicts in the Brazilian Countryside, published by the Pastoral Land Commission (a Catholic Church-affiliated organization), documents more than 50,000 land and water […]

Pulp profits, broken lives: Suzano’s war on Brazilian families

Suzano, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp, has requested the eviction of 600 families in the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The eviction, previously blocked by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, has now been authorized and is scheduled for June 30. Suzano is a major landholder, controlling 2.7 million hectares across seven Brazilian states and […]

Brazil rises against eucalyptus plantations: ‘These are not forests!’

Around 1000 women from Sem Terra ocupam protest in Aracruz (Espirito Santo, Brazil). Foto: © MST On March 13th, in the city of Aracruz (Espírito Santo, Brazil), 1,000 women from the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) occupied land owned by Suzano Papel e Celulose, the world’s largest pulp producer, to protest the environmental impact of […]

Expanding poverty, not prosperity: the impacts of the World Bank’s industrial tree plantations in Paraguay

A new briefing from the Environmental Paper Network, Bank Information Center (BIC), AXIAL Naturaleza y Cultura, Instituto Maira, and Heñoi highlights the impacts of a proposed project by the World Bank aimed at expanding industrial tree plantations in Paraguay. The project is being put forward by the World Bank’s development arm, IBRD (International Bank for […]

Brazil: brand new pulp mill, the same old story

Suzano has announced the operational start-up of its new huge eucalyptus pulp mill in Ribas do Rio Pardo in the federal state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The pulp mill, with a production capacity of 2.55 million tons per year, is presented by Suzano as the world’s largest pulp line, and it is the second […]

Pulp Fiction: the dystopian reality of the origin of your paper

A new report by Environmental Paper Network International debunks the story that paper is ‘green’ and ‘renewable’. Evidence piles up on the ecological and human impacts of the pulp expansion frenzy. 16 July 2024 – Today, the Environmental Paper Network International has launched a daunting report on Suzano, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp and […]

Chile, pulp and paper industry’s war on the poor

Land disputes in peri-urban areas involving the powerful pulp and paper cartel are on the rise in Chile. In addition to longstanding issues of land ownership, these disputes are now being exacerbated by a widespread housing crisis. Celulosa Arauco y Constitución, the country’s biggest pulp and paper company, has recently taken a confrontational stance against […]